|
|
|
| MATR Newsletter - Tue Nov 18, 2008 |
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." Vernon Sanders Law
As we approach the holiday season and as we see the economy struggling, how can your company use its collective strength to improve the lot of those less fortunate? Here's a challenge from Modwest in Missoula. How will your company respond? "Modwest Launches Food Drive, Technology Challenge" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Montana Chamber of Commerce
Boomtown Institute
- Montana Chamber of Commerce President's Commentary on Worker Compensation Rates
If Montana wants its small businesses to stay competitive and provide the jobs Montana families need for tomorrow, we have to get our work comp system under control.
City Club Missoula
- Boomtown Institute - The top 10 global economic issues,
Now that the election is behind us, we wanted to share with our readers a report from the Brookings Institution that outlines the Top 10 Global Economic Challenges deemed as the most critical issues facing America’s 44th president.
Modwest
- City Club Missoula explores "green" projects at local institutions
Trying to make large businesses or institutions more sustainable no longer seems to be a tough sell, based on discussion at Monday’s monthly City Club Missoula forum.
Come Home Montana
- Modwest Launches Food Drive, Technology Challenge
Modwest Co-founder John Masterson explained, "We're calling upon all the other local technology companies, from computer retailers to ISPs to web designers to full service IT shops, to start their own food drives to help the food bank ensure everyone in Missoula has an abundant Thanksgiving."
Montana Business
- Montana Career Opportunity - Programmer - Cedar Mountain Software
We are seeking a programmer with PHP/MySQL experience. We also need a programmer with experience developing MS Access applications.
Montana Economic Development
- Montana grown mapping company MyTopo.com finds its way in tough e-commerce world
MyTopo customizes maps produced by the United States and Canadian governments. Customers can order online or have the company at 1 S. Broadway custom-make maps or aerial photos, or hybrids of both.
Regional Economic Development
- Montana urged to boost wind power
As the United States grapples with the issue of energy over the next two decades, Montana will play a crucial role, a renewable-energy expert said Saturday.
- Lake County Community Development 2008 Newsletter
Western Rural Development Region (WRDC) is a partnership of Lake, Lincoln, Mineral and Sanders Counties in western Montana.
- Don't wait 25 more years for more Montana wilderness areas
"We the people of Montana, grateful to God for the quiet beauty of our state, the grandeur of our mountains, the vastness of the rolling plains ..."
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Guiding local incentives toward innovation
Recently, the Association of University Research Parks released a report on creating innovation zones around universities and government labs.
- Speak Your Piece: Give Rural Entrepreneurs a Slice
The federal government is stepping in to support banks and insurance companies and, perhaps, the auto industry, too. Now it needs to invest in rural small-business development also.
Funding and Building your Business
- Montana Career Opportunity - Private Equity Fund of Funds Manager - Montana Capital Investment Board
The State of Montana Capital Investment Board seeks a private equity fund of funds manager to organize, capitalize, & administer a $60 million contingent deferred tax credit investment program.
Incubators and R&D
- “Scrappy Marketing” Leaner, Meaner And Faster Marketing With Mario Schulzke, 11/20, University Of Montana
Why is the advertising industry “broken?” What is wrong with thoroughly planned, big budget advertising campaigns?
- Toolkit Available for Effective Mentoring Practices
The kit includes 160 separate tools that can be utilized by mentoring practitioners.
Montana Education Excellence
- On the rail: Scientists at the University of Montana's Alternative Energy Technologies already imagining a ‘spiderweb network' for individual monorail pods
“Hydrogen is the answer,” said R. Paul Williamson, the team's leader. “It's the only thing we have enough supply of to solve our energy needs in the United States or the world.”
- Montana State University receives $66.9 million carbon sequestration grant
The U.S. Department of Energy on Monday awarded a $66.9 million, eight-year grant to a research partnership headed by Montana State University to test new methods of using coal and other fossil fuels without contributing to global climate change.
Montana Education/Business Partnerships
- University of Montana's Jakki Mohr recommended for honor
“We are fortunate to have world-class faculty throughout the Montana University System,” said Kevin McRae, the university system director of human resources and labor relations. “The regents professorship recognizes only a few of them, the best of the best.”
- Support for a Community College in the Bitterroot Valley from Rob & Terry Ryan - Proposed Bitterroot campus faces tough sell to regents this week - Your Support is Needed
We are writing to ask your support for establishing a Community College in Ravalli County for the Bitterroot Valley.
Idaho Business
- Hamilton High alums and Microsoft give back in Montana
By tapping into Microsoft’s giving program, the three Hamilton grads turned to the legendary generosity of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, not only benefitting their old school, but in the process, showing their own giving spirits.
- Taylor Brown recognized as engine behind Montana State University’s new Animal Bioscience facility
Brown helped recruit nearly 140 ranchers and businesses to join the “Ranchers Circle,” donating $10,000 or more to the project. Among the major donors were Harold and Evelyn Wanke, farmers from Rudyard, who gave $2.7 million as part of their estate.
Utah Business
- National League of Cities Honors Eight Cities for Municipal Excellence - Boise, Idaho
"These cities have demonstrated leadership and imagination in creating municipal programs and are being recognized as winners for the Awards for Municipal Excellence,"
- Idaho entrepreneurs start fresh in tough times
Idaho's economy is taking a beating. But the entrepreneurial spirit among some of its residents isn't.
- Schweitzer calls Idaho 'simpler' for business
Idaho can attract companies like SEL by focusing on its business climate, not incentives for specific enterprises, Schweitzer said.
Wyoming Business
- New company means more jobs for Utah - Merger » Decho absorbs Mozy of Pleasant Grove
The new company, called Decho -- for digital echo -- will be looking to hire for 100 positions in Pleasant Grove, he said.
Education
- Farming Windpower where the Antelope Play --- Wyoming
Julianne Couch gets a lesson in wind farming from a Wyoming operations chief, about wildlife, turbines, and the future of electric power.
- $100-million GE-Wyoming Coal Project Found Willing, Discreet Partner In Wyoming
The story behind the new $100-million GE-Wyoming coal gasification project goes back to the early 1980s when a then-California-based energy company, Tosco, was trying to extract fuel from massive oil shale deposits outside Grand Junction, Colorado.
Connectivity & Communications
- Afterschool Program Gives Kids Tech Skills and Computers
Make It-Take It is designed to give underprivileged children access to technology, computers and related skills. Aside from the long-term benefits of technology literacy, the program teaches skills that could lead students toward tech-oriented careers.
- Strengthening America's Economic Competitiveness - Public Policy Strategies to Improve Workforce Readiness
We believe we must take a new and markedly different approach to prepare our nation’s young people for adulthood.
- Measuring Skills FOR THE 21st Century
There is a need for better tests that measure more of the skills students’ need to succeed today.
- Policies to Improve Instruction and Learning in High Schools
The pilot project found strong indication that when high school courses are well-aligned to academic standards, growth in achievement occurs.
Non-Profit News
- No More Landlines within 4 years. Communications Forecast #1
It's gonna get ugly for some people – people who can't afford to do without communication – unless we're proactive about this problem.
Small Diameter Timber Utilization
- Looming leadership deficit in the nonprofit sector.
As nonprofits cut costs, they shortchange a new generation of potential leaders within their ranks. How can they fill the void?
VIRUS ALERTS
- In the West, Turning Waste Wood Into Heat - Fuels for School and Beyond Program
The Big Sky state has nine of the 14 biomass boilers currently operating under the program, including ones in Glacier and Eureka high schools. “It’s unbelievable,” Cassidy said of the money saved.
- Spam plummets after bust
The power of the press. How else to describe the impact of an investigative piece by ace reporter Brian Krebs of the Washington Post, which led to the take down of McColo, a Web-hosting company responsible for a ton of spam.
To subscribe or unsubscribe from the free weekly MATR newsletter, please visit our list info page
